Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken
unto
you.
]. These words being inserted in the discourse concerning the
vine and branches, and the pruning and purging them to make them
fruitful, are thought, by the learned Dr. Lightfoot, to be an
allusion to the law in ( Leviticus
19:23 ) ; by which the fruit of trees, for the first three
years, were accounted uncircumcised or unclean, and in the fourth
year fit for use; concerning which the Talmudists have a whole
tract, called (hlre) ,
"Orla"; the apostles having enjoyed the ministry of Christ, and
been his disciples about such a time. Though the "now" seems to
refer to the removal and taking away of that withered and
unfruitful branch, Judas. Christ, in ( John 13:10 ) , had told
his disciples, that they "were clean, but not all", because the
betrayer was among them; but he being discovered by Christ, and
ordered by him to be gone, went out from among them about his
wicked design; and now Christ could say of them all, that they
were clean: which may be understood of their regeneration and
sanctification, in which their hearts were sprinkled with clean
water; were washed with the washing of regeneration; had their
hearts purified by faith in the blood of Christ, and had pure
principles of grace formed in their souls; of all which the
Gospel of Christ was the instrumental means: or of their
justification by the righteousness of Christ, by which they were
justified from all sin; and were all fair, and without spot;
which was through the Gospel of Christ revealing his
righteousness to them, or through the sentence of justification
he, by his Spirit, passed upon their consciences.